NEW DELHI: Unrestricted freedom could wreak havoc in a multi-cultural society like India, the Supreme Court has said. Looking into validity of certain sections of the Information Technology Act, the court on Friday upheld the government's powers to ask internet service providers to remove objectionable content from websites in certain cases.

A bench comprising HL Gokhale and Jasti Chelameswar said that it prima facie found nothing unreasonable about these powers conferred on the government. The court was dealing with a petition filed by MouthShut.com (India) Private Ltd, a consumer review website, which had charged that such a provision had made it impossible for it to run its business.

"On the one hand, their business suffers if they censor content and on the other, the government comes after them and threatens them with arrests," said senior counsel Huzeffa Ahmadi, who appeared for the petitioner.

Ahmadi claimed that the service provider could be arrested if he failed to remove the content within a stipulated time. But the bench disagreed: "You are carrying on a business. But that is subject to reasonable restrictions. Prima facie there is nothing unreasonable about these restrictions," Justice Gokhale said. The court defended the provision saying that it was necessary in larger public interest to have such restrictions on objectionable content. "In a large country like India... sometimes such publicity will create huge problems and havoc, particularly when the matter relates to political and religious issues," the Supreme Court bench said.

It cited recent examples of some recent hate messages inciting violence against those from the north-east which saw an exodus from Bangalore. "We have to look at the issue in a holistic way. We have a host of problems in this country," the bench said. It, however, issued notices to the UP and the AP governments on fresh applications alleging misuse of the Act in their states.

PIL petitioner Shreya Singhal, who had first drawn the court's attention to the misuse of the Act in Maharashtra, pointed out in her fresh application the recent instance of harassment of Kamal Bharti, a writer, who was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police in Rampur district for an alleged provocative post on Facebook, criticising senior UP minister Azam Khan over the suspension of IAS officer Durga Sakti Nagpal. Bharti was arrested on a complaint filed by the PRO of Azam Khan, Fasahat Ali Khan, but was later released on bail. He was charged with instigating and hurting communal feelings.